The Effects of Religious Fundamentalism and Religiosity on Preference for Traditional Family Norms*

Grasmick, Harold G.; Wilcox, Linda Patterson; Bird, Sharon R.

doi:10.1111/j.1475-682x.1990.tb00154.x

Cited by 33 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(11 reference statements)

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“…This explores the positions of certain religious leaders, but it does not tell us much about who reads this literature or how the members of religious groups apply it. In addition, previous studies that do examine respondents' religious gender ideologies or decision-making behaviors have been limited to specific subsets of the population (Gallagher & Smith 1999;Smith & Lundquist 2000) or to nonrepresentative samples (Bartkowski 2001;Grasmick, Wilcox & Bird 1990;Griffith 1997;Stacey 1990;Zvonkovic et al 1996).…”

Section: Gender Ideology and Religionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Gender and Marital Decision Making: Negotiating Religious Ideology and Practice

Denton

2004

Social Forces

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This article uses quantitative data from the 1996 Religious Identity and Influence Survey to examine the relationship between religious identity, gender ideology, and marital decision making. The focus is on variation across religious groups in beliefs about the husbandas the headof thefamily and reported patterns of maritaldecision making. While conservative Protestants espouse a traditional gender-role ideology, their marital decision-making practices are not significantly differentfrom those of otherreligious groups. On the otherhand, theologically liberal Protestants have more egalitarian ideology while reporting decision-making practices that are not significantly more egalitarian than those of conservative Protestants. The findings suggest that ideology should not be equated with practice without taking into consideration the broader contextand subcultural meanings of the beliefs in question.For decades in America, the traditional family has been closely associated with religious influences. At the end of the 1950s, married couples with children made up nearly half the American population. During this time church membership grew rapidly, and churches responded by emphasizing "traditional nuclear families," a response that continues to reinforce the relationship between religion and family life today (Marler 1995). Traditional ideals about family life and gender roles have many of their roots in religion, and there is much literature on the influence of religious beliefs on family values and patterns. Recent decades, however, have seen shifts in family structure, with the acknowledgment of nontraditional family forms becoming more common. Along with this shift in family demographics have come changing cultural expectations of families. Scholars are increasingly turning their attention to the changing relationship between family life and religion. Many churches continue to cater to the traditional family model and exert an influence over the beliefs and practices in the family life of their members. However, there are also recent moves within religious communities to recognize changes in family structure and the accompanying changes in ideologies and expectations about family life.The historical link between religious beliefs and family life has played out in several areas. Past research has documented religious influences on family life in marriage and divorce rates, fertility rates, parenting, labor force participation, household labor, and many others (Call

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Section: Gender Ideology and Religionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Gender and Marital Decision Making: Negotiating Religious Ideology and Practice

Denton

2004

Social Forces

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“…Wald et al (1990) label this complex of issues "moral conservatism." Although many scholars appear to suggest that this complex is limited to matters related to the family and sexuality (for a summary of this view, see Grasmick et al 1990), we propose below that it also includes a harsh punitive response to those who break the law.…”

Section: Classifying Religious Affiliationsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…In other areas of social science research, evidence is accllmulating that affiliation with an evangelical or fundementalist Protestant denomination has a direct effect on individuals' positions on various policy issues, especially issues concerning the family, gender roles, and sexuality (e.g., Cochran and Beeghley 1991;Grasmick, Wilcox, and Bird 1990;Hertel and Hughes 1987;Luker 1984;Peek and Brown 1980;Peek et al 1991;Tedin 1978;Wood and Hughes 1984). Wald et al (1990) label this complex of issues "moral conservatism."…”

Section: Classifying Religious Affiliationsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Religion, punitive justice, and support for the death penalty

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“…Prior research has examined the link between conservative religiosity and gender/family ideologies, but it has rarely tested the behavioral impact of conservative religion (however, see Lehrer 1995;Hall 1995). While research has demonstrated a general association between conservative religious affiliation and lower socioeconomic status (Grasmick, Wilcox and Bird 1990;Darnell and Sherkat 1997), no causal order has been firmly established.…”

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confidence: 97%

Childhood Religious Conservatism and Adult Attainment among Black and White Women

2005

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The resurgence of conservative religious groups over the past several decades raises interesting questions about its effects on women's life chances. Conservative religious institutions promote a traditional understanding of gender within families. Women's beliefs about appropriate family roles, in turn, influence their preparation for market work and the timing and extent of their laborforce participation. Using retrospective data from the National Survey of Households and Families, this paper examines the effect of childhood religious affiliation on American women's acquisition and use of marketable skills, focusing on women's educational investments, familyformation behavior, laborforce participation and wage attainment. Results show that childhood religious conservatism is associated with diminished human capital acquisition and earlier family formation for White women with more muted results for Black women.Resurgent religious fundamentalism within the world's major religious traditions raises significant questions for scholars of gender inequality. Many conservative religious movements are centrally concerned with the reestablishment of traditional moral order involving patriarchal leadership and a strong sexual division of labor within the family (Hawley 1994). As such, the growing popularity of conservative religious groups would seem to undermine women's slow progress toward labor market equality with men around the world and here in the United States. Indeed, much of the literature on gender inequality in the labor market acknowledges that women's ideological beliefs about appropriate family roles and non-maternal child care are important determinants of their labor market behavior (Glass and Riley 1998;Greenstein 1989;Hakim 2002;Hock, Gnezda and McBride 1984). However, stratification researchers have generally sidestepped investigation of the institutional origins of these beliefs, despite their importance in producing behavioral outcomes that result in women's economic disadvantage.Conservative religions, to a greater extent than other institutions, advocate the belief that mothers are first and foremost responsible for providing care to their children and husbands and should only secondarily be involved in market work. Paradoxically, conservative religious groups have been growing rather than declining during the period in which mothers' labor force participation has risen dramatically in the United States overall (Leibowitz and Klerman 1995;Brown 1994). As yet, their potential to impede women's economic progress has not been analyzed. In this paper, we begin such investigation by focusing on three questions (1) Do women raised in religiously conservative households exhibit lower occupational attainment in adulthood? (2) How precisely does childhood religion affect adult women's earnings? Is the effect feit through early life course decisions regarding education, marriage and family formation? And/or is the effect realized through later preferences for domesticity and traditional gender roles? (3) In...

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The Effects of Religious Fundamentalism and Religiosity on Preference for Traditional Family Norms*

Cited by 33 publications

References 19 publications

Gender and Marital Decision Making: Negotiating Religious Ideology and Practice

Gender and Marital Decision Making: Negotiating Religious Ideology and Practice

Religion, punitive justice, and support for the death penalty

Childhood Religious Conservatism and Adult Attainment among Black and White Women

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